Hey All,
It's time for this season's final edition of Notes on a Big Ten Scorecard. This season just flew by. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.
Summary
Big Ten Conference Championship Game
Indiana 13- Ohio State 10: Lucas Oil Stadium- Indianapolis, IN- The #1 Buckeyes and the #2 Hoosiers squared off in a thriller last Saturday night. Things looked scary right away for Indiana as star QB Fernando Mendoza was leveled on the first play form scrimmage and was down on the turf for quite awhile before making it off the field under his own power. Just two plays later he was back in the game and all was well for him after that. The first scores of the game came off interceptions. Indiana struck first turning their turnover in for a 3-0 lead on a 29-yard FG from PK Nico Radicic. TheeeOSU then turned their turnover into a TD when WR Carnell Tate hauled in a 9-yard scoring toss form QB Justin Sayin. The second quarter saw both teams trade FGs with Radicic making a 32-yarder and missing from 39 yards away while Buckeye PK Jayden Fielding sent a 30-yard kick through the uprights. The score stood 10-6 in favor of TheeeOSU at the half. Its was close, but all looked good for the Buckeyes. They haven't lost many games when ahead at the half over the last few years. Ahhhhhh, but this Indiana squad was tough as nails and wasn't fazed by their deficit. The third quarter saw the Hoosiers take a 13-10 lead on 7-play, 88-yard drive. Mendoza threw an absolute laser of a pass to the left corner of the end zone to WR Elijah Sarratt for the touchdown. All of a sudden TheeeOSU was trailing in the second half for the first time all year. The Scarlet & Gray seemed undaunted as they took 12 plays to travel 70 yards to the IU 5-yard line. It was here that they faced a 4th and 1. The Buckeyes went for it and seemed to make the First Down on a sneak by Sayin. However, the play was reviewed. This is where the Fox broadcast failed us all. They went to commercial during the review. When they came back from the commercial break we learned that the play had been overturned and that Sayin's knee was down short of the line to gain for the First Down. We never saw the explanation of the review, crowd reaction or anything except for a short blurb from analyst Joel Klatt and a freeze frame of Sayin's knee being down. That was an epic fail for Fox. The game moved onto the final quarter and Ohio Sate went on one of those drives that smacked of arrogance and complacency. There did not seem to be any urgency in the drive. They just melted the clock and took 15 plays to go 81 yards. However, once again they faced a 4th Down in the shadow of the Indiana goal line. This time they sent Fielding out to boot a 27-yard FG from the right hashmark to tie the game. He pulled the kick wide left and the Hoosiers had the ball back with a 13-10 lead and just 2:30 left to play. IU managed to run down most of the clock. The Buckeyes would get the ball back, but with only :19 left at their own 14-yard line with no timeouts. Three plays later, Indiana watched the clock hit 0:00 and they started to celebrate their first outright Big Ten title since 1945. For the Hoosiers, Mendoza completed 15 of 23 passes for 222 yards, a TD and an interception with WR Charlie Beck grabbing 6 of those passes for 126 yards. In the loss for the kids from Columbus, Sayin completed 20 of 29 passes for 258 yards, a TD and an interception. His backfield mate, RB Bo Jackson led all rushers with 83 yards on 17 carries.
Telling Stat: A = L; Ohio State never thought that Indiana had a chance to win the game. Their arrogance cost them a Big Ten title.
Observations
...Ha-Ha; I'm not a fan of either Alabama or Miami, but watching Notre Dame not make the playoff was pretty funny.
...Hypcocrisy reigns; I love how the CFP selection committee refused to penalize Alabama for being being pounded in the SEC tile game by Georgia, but did penalize BYU for being worked over by Texas Tech in the Big XII title tilt. Then the committee had the audacity to claim that conference title games don't matter. Facepalm.
...Some cheese and soda bread for their whines?; Notre Dame threw a hissy fit after not making the playoff and has officially declined a bowl bid for the post season. Whining Irish
...Still whining; Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua has now said that the ACC caused "permanent damage" to the relationship between ND and the conference for backing Miami for the playoff spot over them.
ND lost to Miami. Case closed. Get over it. Bitter Leprechaun
...Delcined as well; Iowa State and Kansas State also have decline bowl bids for the reason that they have each lost their HCs. However, as ND declined a bowl with no repercussions, ISU and KSU will each pay $500,000 fine to the Big XII for doing so. A costly staycation
...The upset heard around the FCS; QB Tommy Rittenhouse hit WR Scotty Presson, Jr with a 2-point conversion pass with :55 left to lift Illinois State two a 29-28 win over the #1 ranked North Dakota State Bison. NDSU has been the class of the FCS for years, dominating the division with a slew of national titles. Ahhh, but not this year. Illinois State advances to take on UC Davis in the FCS quarterfinals next week.
...The Bloomington is on the Rose; Indiana will play in the Rose Bowl in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. The only other time the Hoosiers played in the Grandaddy of them All, they lost 14-3 in the 1968 Rose Bowl to USC. Some RB named O.J. scored both of the Trojans TDs.
...Stiffarm Statue musings; Will Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza hold the line and claim this year's Heisman Trophy with his incredible season or will Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love take home the award? Mendoza should win it, but Love has history on his side as an RB has won the Heisman in every year that ends in a 5. Check it out...
1935- Jay Berwanger- Chicago
1945- Doc Blanchard- Army
1955- Howard Cassady- Ohio State
1965- Mike Garrett- USC
1975- Archie Griffin- Ohio State
1985- Bo Jackson- Auburn
1995- Eddie George- Ohio State
2005- Reggie Bush- USC
2015- Derick Henry- Alabama
...Everyone Hates Clay; 6-6 Georgia Southern couldn't find a date for the Bowl Season. The Eagles accepted a bid to play in the Birmingham Bowl, but nobody would go along with them. 7, yes 7 other teams rejected the bowl bid. Finally, 5-7 Appalachian State accepted and will square off against GSU on 12/29. Rejection 7
...Stark Reality; It's clear that the current bowl system will cease to exist soon. The BCS followed by the CFP has made this possible. A further expansion of the CFP will all but kill off all the bowls that don't get absorbed as part of the CFP. Long gone will be the days of middle aged men in loud polyester blazers proudly inviting teams to places like El Paso, Nashville, Memphis, Honolulu, and Orlando.
...Wishful thinking; It's time to eliminate the conference championship games. They are just a waste of time and effort.
...Switch it up, Gus; Fox Play-By-Play man Gus Johnson was fixated on Indiana WR Charlie Becker's hometown during the Big Ten title game. At least five separate times after a catch by Becker, Johnson informed us he was from Nashville. Faceplam.
...Fear the Owls; The Kennesaw State Owls are 10-3 and C-USA Champs after beating Jacksonville State, 19-15 in the league title tilt. That's quite a turnaround for a Kennesaw State who went 2-10 in 2024 which was their first year in the FBS.
...My Annual Appeal; The last regular season game in college football takes place this coming Saturday as Army and Navy square off in Baltimore this week. This is one of the greatest rivalries in the sport and matches up kids who answered the call to serve their country. Remember the toughest thing a regular FBS player does all week is play football. For an Academy kid, it's the easies thing they do. This game is for bragging rights, glory and the honor of singing last.
...Bad theory; The refs in the Big Ten are atrocious. Whereas then old Pac 12 refs were awful for calling every tacky-tack foul usually in a one-sided nature against one team, the Big Ten refs don't call anything. The Big Ten's "Just let them play" stance does a great a disservice to the game They need to find balance.
...Lupoi is their man; Cal has hired Oregon DC Tosh Lupoi to be the new HC of the Golden Bears. Lupoi is a Northern California man. He's a grad of Concord De La Salle and played his college ball at Cal as a DL from 2000-2005. Lupoi is a top notch recruiter and his first recruiting assignment is to keep Frosh sensation QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele from transferring. Please! Please Don't Go!
...Cougars back at square 1; For the second straight season, Wazzu has lost their HC. Lats year, Jake Dickert left the Palouse for Wake Forest, This year it's Jimmy Rogers leaving Pullman for Iowa State. As Wazzu conducts another HC search, one of the most interesting rumors out there is that Rick Neuheisal and Jerry Neuhesial will be hired as a package deal as HC and OC. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
...He's baaaaaaaack; In a story that went under the radar this weekend, new VaTech HC James Franklin will hire Brent Pry as his Defensive Coordinator. Pry is the guy Franklin just replaced as HC of the Hokies. Pry was fired from the HC job at VaTech back in September. Ummmm What? Ummm, Yes. Whoa. Facepalm. Pry Me a River
...Fall fades away; All the decorations that are rich with fall colors have been put away and Christmas decorations of traditional red & green adorn the house now. College football playoffs and bowl games lie ahead along with Christmas and New Year's celebrations. Ahhh, but here's a little photo I took to remind me of the goodness of fall and college football's great regular season. It will come around again before we know it.
Big Ten Bowl Game Matchups
Regular Bowls
12/13- LA Bowl: Boise state v. Washington.
12/26- GameAbove Bowl: Central Michigan v. Northwestern
12/26- Rate Bowl: New Mexico v. Minnesota
12/27- Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State v. Clemson
12/30- Alamo Bowl: USC v TCU
12/31- ReliaQuest Bowl: Iowa v. Vanderbilt
12/31- Citrus Bowl: Michigan v. Texas
12/31- Las Vegas Bowl: Nebraska v. Utah
CFP Matchups
First-Round 12/19/25- James Madison at Oregon.
Quarterfinal 1/1/26- Rose Bowl: Alabama-Oklahoma winner v. Indiana
Quarterfinal 1/1/26- Cotton Bowl: Miami-Texas A&M winner v Ohio State
Keeping Up With Your Exes
Cal, under interim HC Nick Rolovich, will take on Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl. Rolovich where he was once the Hawaii HC. Should be a good one. Utah will take on Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl. Arizona will face SMU in the Holiday Bowl and Arizona State will face Duke in the Sun Bowl. Yes, the Sun Devils got the dreaded Sun Bowl bid. Wazzu will face Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Stanford, Colorado and Oregon State will not be going to a bowl.
Ugly Uniform of the Week
The Washington Huskies Hopps team get the not for this horrible lavender uniform. UW is purple and gold. Where's the gold? Feels like an old ABA uniform. Hmmmmm
A Chicle of Wisdom
The final card of the 1935 National Chicle football set that we will look at is #34 Bronko Nagurski. This is the key card of the set. It's a short print and easily goes for at least $10.000 in poor condition with a PSA graded 9 one going for $350,000 in an auction back in 2011. Coach Casey heaps praise on the Chicago Bears stalwart RB who would become a charter member of the NFL Hall of Hame in 1963. Here he is pictured with his Alma Mater, Minnesota's Pennant in the background. It isn't a pretty card, but an important one in hobby history. The 1935 National Chicle set was the only major set of football players released between 1894-1948. Watch That Bronko Run
Departments
Low Score Game of the Week: Alliance, OH- The biggest upset in the D-III playoff occurred over the weekend as the John Carroll University Blue Streaks beat the Mount Union Purple Raiders, 10-7 in 2 OT. The #2 ranked Purple Raiders looked like they were gonna blow JCU out of stadium when QB Mike Maloney threw an 85-yard TD pass to WR Nick Turner on their opening possession. The Purple Raiders never scored again. The Blue Streaks tied the game in the third quarter when QB Nick Semtimphelter hit WR Shane Lidstriom with a 29-yard scoring strike. In the first OT both teams missed field goals. In the second OT, JCU PK Colin Schuler booted a 39-yard FG to give his team the lead. Then Mount Union drove to the 4-yard line. Faced with a 4th and 2 at the 4-yard line, the Purple Raiders went for it. Maloney was stopped by LB Davon Badley a yard short of the 1st Down at the 3-yard line. JCU had pulled off the upset win. They now will advance to the next round of the playoffs.
Blowout Game of the Week: Radnor, PA- The Susquehanna River Hawks wiped out the Eastern University Eagles, 29-0. The River Hawks held a slim, 8-0 halftime lead thanks to pair of FGs from PK Dominic Bourgeois and a safety. However they would cross the double stripe three times in the second half to pull away for the win. The most exciting of the River Hawks 3 TDs was an 80-yard fumble return by DB Xavier Maple.
This Week'sThree Notes About Nothing...
Putting up the Xmas decorations is fun.
Mom's pot roast still rocks.
Speaking of pot roast, I'm now craving the Pot Roast sandwich from Urth Caffe.
A Thank You Note
The time has come for my annual thank you to all who make this blog possible. I thank you all for reading these weekly musings about the game with the funny bouncing ball. Also, I give a special nod to my field agents everywhere. From Southern California, to the Midwest, South and across the globe, you all make this blog a labor of love. Oh, and a special nod goes to my wife, family and tailgate family. The games come and go, but it all wouldn't mean very much without having you all in my life to experience it all with. So, until next year folks, remember that this game of college football no matter how flawed it is, is still pretty damn awesome to play and watch. We will meet again in this space next during the dog days of summer when it's time to take another ride on the Old Coaching Carousel. Unit then, peace.
-The Commissioner
